Apple Music pays artists a penny per stream, double that of Spotify
Apple is writing to artists on Apple Music, saying it pays a penny per stream, and that 52% of subscription revenue goes to them via record labels.
Apple Music
Apple is to send a letter via its Apple Music for Artists app, telling musicians that it wants to detail just how its payments to them work. According to The Wall Street Journal, The letter is due to be sent today and comes as the UK is investigating how fair all streaming music services are to artists.
"As the discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values," Apple reportedly says in the letter seen by The Wall Street Journal. said in the letter. "We believe in paying every creator the same rate, that a play has a value, and that creators should never have to pay [for music being promoted]."
Apple's letter specifies that it pays 52% of all its subscription Apple Music revenues to the record labels. Spotify's payments are more complex, as that service includes both subscribers and an ad-supported free tier.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify at times will pay approximately the same, or even slightly more, at 50% to 53%. However, on average, Spotify is paying around half of that Apple does -- per stream.
Overall, Spotify pays much more than Apple because it has 155 million paid subscribers, out of a total of 345 million total active users. In comparison, Apple rarely reveals subscriber numbers, saying only that in 2019 it passed 60 million.
In early 2020, Amazon reported that its music subscription services had 55 million subscribers.
Apple's letter to artists is not the first time that the company has tried to position itself as the best service for them. In February 2021, Apple Music's global director of Music Publishing, Elena Segal told a UK streaming music inquiry that the company wants to pay musicians fairly.
"Artists should be paid for their work," she said at the time. "Creators should be paid for their work. From our standpoint, the most important thing is to have a healthy overall creative ecosystem that's sustainable into the long term."
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Apple Music
Apple is to send a letter via its Apple Music for Artists app, telling musicians that it wants to detail just how its payments to them work. According to The Wall Street Journal, The letter is due to be sent today and comes as the UK is investigating how fair all streaming music services are to artists.
"As the discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values," Apple reportedly says in the letter seen by The Wall Street Journal. said in the letter. "We believe in paying every creator the same rate, that a play has a value, and that creators should never have to pay [for music being promoted]."
Apple's letter specifies that it pays 52% of all its subscription Apple Music revenues to the record labels. Spotify's payments are more complex, as that service includes both subscribers and an ad-supported free tier.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify at times will pay approximately the same, or even slightly more, at 50% to 53%. However, on average, Spotify is paying around half of that Apple does -- per stream.
Overall, Spotify pays much more than Apple because it has 155 million paid subscribers, out of a total of 345 million total active users. In comparison, Apple rarely reveals subscriber numbers, saying only that in 2019 it passed 60 million.
In early 2020, Amazon reported that its music subscription services had 55 million subscribers.
Apple's letter to artists is not the first time that the company has tried to position itself as the best service for them. In February 2021, Apple Music's global director of Music Publishing, Elena Segal told a UK streaming music inquiry that the company wants to pay musicians fairly.
"Artists should be paid for their work," she said at the time. "Creators should be paid for their work. From our standpoint, the most important thing is to have a healthy overall creative ecosystem that's sustainable into the long term."
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
I'm sure people using Apple Music would listen on average to more than one song per day (365 songs per year) and I doubt there are 60M artists on Apple Music so calculating what each artist on average would get isn't easy but I could see 1 penny adding up pretty fast for many artists but also not making any money for many artists.
That is, access to almost ALL content at a reasonable price for users and fair payment to creators, with Apple doing a tad better than break even on the service, viewing it mostly as a means of attaching folks to the ecosystem. That would be so much better than all of these separate services.
I thought this would happen because Jimmy and Dre were employed. They are known for creating big artists and huge labels.
2. Apple Music launched as the streaming service version of iTunes, which is a store that carries music from all major labels, plus independents. There's not much reason for them to create their own vanity record label to compete with all that. They could perhaps have tried to grab some major artists for exclusive distribution rights, but that would sour deals they need to make with other major labels for the overall streaming service. There's too much conflict of interest built into trying to do both things, which would make the whole operation less competitive.
Variety has a good article that sums up the inaccuracy of what you and I are doing: trying to make a direct comparison. It's not really possible. It's a short but decent read.
https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/apple-music-penny-per-stream-1234953179/
Highlighted:
But what you receive from the label totally depends on your contract with your label.
If you were getting screwed by your label before, you'll continue to be screwed until you can renegotiate your deal.
Radio station often don’t pay anything to the record label.
sounds good, doesn’t work.
If you're curious how here's a short 12 minute read for you.
https://soundcharts.com/blog/radio-royalties#:~:text=As we've mentioned earlier,is played on the radio.&text=So, for the American-based,paid performance royalties for airplay.